~ An ALT in Fujioka, Gunma-ken

Higashichuu Graduation and Easter Eggs!

Higashi’s graduation for the 9th graders occurs about two weeks or so before the actual end of the school year. That’s nice for the sannensei since they don’t have to stick around, and get a pretty long break before high school starts! Here are photos from this year’s graduation ceremony:

Lunch the day before, the last school lunch for the graduates, featured the kanji for celebration or congratulations. This was hilarious a week later when our school lunch soup had these same things in them. I guess they had extra?

Students receive their diplomas from the Principal.

A picture with some students before they leave.

Middle School graduation here in Japan is more similar to High School graduation in the states. To be honest I really don’t even remember my middle school graduation, since it isn’t a big deal. In Japan, only up to junior high school is required, so this is the big graduation. One major difference here is that the entire school gets to go to the graduation since it is always in the gym during school time, versus the States which is usually in a bigger venue on a weekend. Higashi specifically has a different system than Nishi, where the kids are pretty much shooed right out of school when it ends instead of making the two lines of younger students like Nishi did.

Once the kids are gone it is time for lunch! We were all starving by that point, but first the sannensei teachers thanked the other teachers for their help.

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Then it was time to eat! A super tasty (and expensive) sushi lunch, plus these yummy snacks for dessert. And since it was a Friday, after lunch I got the afternoon off. Nice!

Friday afternoon, Kenji teachers our doctor’s two little girls, and this class was going to be a special Easter-themed lesson! The girls did wordsearches and learned vocabulary first while we set up, and then we got to dye Easter eggs! It has been a LONG time since I got a chance to do that!

Preparing the colors while the girls work

Undyed eggs. We used clear wax crayons and regular color crayons for the eggs!

The finished products!

Icchan holding all our eggs in a basket!

Easter is fun! I wish I had the chance to teach the junior high kids and do activities about it, but March is probably the busiest month of the year, so there really isn’t time. Too bad!